In the context of Indigenous Australia, Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA), is a nascent field both in terms of state and territory regulation and in practice. Likewise, relative to the science of environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) this nomenclature of CIA is recent, and its application to Indigenous interests, even more so. This report reviews the available literature – internationally and within Australia – on CIA, Indigenous peoples and the extractives sector. As the focus is on application and informing industry and regulators, this focus on Indigenous CIA also reviewed current Australian practice and methods, finding that there has not been a specific methodology developed for Indigenous CIA in relation to the extractives sector. As outlined in the report however, there are a range of methodologies that are more useful and relevant than others, as they begin to address Indigenous specific interests. A useful finding is that a fundamental element in developing an effective Indigenous CIA method is to ensure that it is able to identify what the specific interests are, in terms of ‘values’ and ‘significance’. This can only be done in collaboration with the Indigenous groups and knowledge holders, and requires qualitative and quantitative methods.

This report is a specific component of a larger project entitled Towards a framework for regional cumulative impact assessment, under the auspices of the Cooperative Research Centre for Transitions in Mining Economies (CRC TiME). This larger report (which contains a synopsis of this Indigenous CIA report and the whole report as an appendix) – can be found here: https://crctime.com.au/macwp/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Project-1.1_Final-Report_14.04.22_approved.pdf